The
Better to See You WithProposal
to install cameras in police cars gains momentum

In
what feels like a rare in stance of consensus between concerned
citizens, Common Council members and the Albany Police Department,
the city is moving toward installing cameras in its police
cars.

Legislation proposed by 3rd Ward Councilman Michael Brown
to the Common Council last month to require the cameras was
referred to the Public Safety Committee for review. That review
began last week. Brown is pushing for the legislation because
he believes it will help eliminate bias and guesswork in the
aftermath of an incident, and thereby help protect both police
and the public from spurious allegations [“Case Closed, Questions
Opened,” Newsfront, May 13]. At the Public Safety Committee
meeting, the legislation was reviewed, and Brown, Police Chief
James Turley and Assistant Chief Paula Breen were questioned
about the issues surrounding the cameras.

During the meeting, the police department and the committee
members appeared generally amenable to the idea of installing
cameras. Councilwoman and committee member Sarah Curry-Cobb
said, “For us not to do something that protects the officers
as well as the residents would be shortsighted.”

They agreed, however, that there are many issues that still
need ironing out: What kind of system will be used? Which
cars should get cameras first? What kind of control will patrol
officers get over their cameras? How long will footage be
kept and will it be public information?

The police know they don’t want dash-mounted cameras because
there is too much equipment already there; instead they hope
cameras can be mounted near the dome light. Digital cameras
also seem to be the preferred route. The police department
is currently researching different systems to recommend to
the committee. Brown had requested the cameras be installed
by July 1, though the process likely will take longer.

Brown requested a reapportionment of $300,000 of the city’s
budget to cover the cost of the equipment. “If we could spend
more than $1.2 million dealing with lawsuits [in the last
few years], I think we should be able to handle another $300,000
to protect our people and also rebuild confidence in the police
department,” said Brown.

During the meeting’s public comment period, resident Harry
Wilcox said “the cost of this is a moot point if we rebuild
the trust in the police department.”

Police spokesman Jim Miller said the department had previously
considered cameras but decided against them because they found
that because so much police work in an urban setting is done
away from the car, the cameras would not be effective. In
many systems, however, microphones on the officers would still
create an audio record even if an interaction is off-camera.

Last year, Schenectady installed a digital-camera system in
12 of its 20 marked cars, which cost $100,000. Lt. Pete Frisoni
Jr., a spokesman for the Schenectady Police Department said
the system has been useful thus far and “allows us to ensure
that our officers are acting professionally, and it helps
us to make sure that false complaints aren’t being made against
officers.”

Schenectady’s cameras start rolling when a patrol car’s lights
are activated, recording an incident on a reusable DVD; officers
can also turn the cameras on or off manually. The DVDs are
archived for six months and then recorded over “unless they’re
requested as evidence or there’s a possibility they may be
requested for evidence, then we’ll take them out of circulation
and they will be archived,” Frisoni said. He added that DVDs
are routinely checked at random, and contentious incidents
are reviewed when they arise to make sure officers are adhering
to departmental policy. Footage of a particular incident is
available to the public, though no one has requested any yet.
So far the footage has been used for training and evidentiary
purposes.

Breen said she anticipates some opposition to the cameras
from civil-liberties groups. But Melanie Trimble, executive
director of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Region
chapter, said the group supports using cameras in police cars
“because it not only protects cops but it protects the people
who are being arrested.” The civil-liberties concerns arise
if officers’ private conversations are being taped or if the
footage is kept indefinitely. “Open-ended investigations are
really not favorable from a civil-liberties point of view,”
she said. She and others said that the film should be available
to the public at its request.

In Albany, advocates of police accountability see the cameras
as an opportunity for accurate information to be gathered
at crucial moments. “I fully support it because I think then
we can have an accurate record of what happens,” said Loralynne
Krobetzky, a friend of David Scaringe, who was killed by an
errant bullet on New Year’s Eve when police opened fire on
a fleeing car on Lark Street. Krobetzky has been outspoken
about the need for police department reform. “Right now all
we have to go on is the words of the police and the words
of witnesses,” she said, “and I think we’ve seen that the
police are given the benefit of the doubt.”

Brown said the community response has also been positive;
tonight he will host a community meeting at the Church of
God and Prophecy (57 Livingston Ave., Albany) at 6 PM to discuss
the installation of cameras, as well as issues related to
public safety, code enforcement and the Arbor Hill Development
Project.

For
Those About to Rock, We Condemn YouGlens
Falls residents crusading against upcoming Aggressive Music
Festival find little sympathy for their views

For
the past few weeks, Susan Balfour and Diane LaFontaine have
had a lot to say about the upcoming Aggressive Music Festival,
a two-day bill featuring some of the biggest names in metal,
scheduled to take place at the Glens Falls Civic Center on
the weekend of July 17 and 18. In the local papers and at
city council meetings, the duo have voiced their concerns
about the themes of sex and violence prevalent in some of
the bands’ lyrics, and have gone as far as to call for the
show’s cancellation. Balfour even collected a few hundred
signatures to that end. Not that they are telling any of this
to Metroland.

Following repeated attempts to reach Balfour for comment,
a man answered the phone at her residence Wednesday, and said
that “we’re dealing with this right here and I don’t think
[Balfour] wants to deal with you.” When LaFontaine was reached
at home Wednesday morning, she too declined comment on the
crusade.

Balfour’s and LaFontaine’s refusal to answer questions for
this story may have to do with the widespread criticism their
crusade has received. Word of their campaign has spread all
over the Internet, been translated into a handful of languages
and widely trashed.

“People
like this Susan Balfour don’t understand the real story behind
the music they attack,” reads one of 70-odd posts about the
attempt to cancel the show on the metal news site www.blabbermouth.net.
“Heavy metal bands (most of them anyway) use aggressive music,
violent lyrics and occasional shock tactics as an ALTERNATIVE
to real life violence. Metal musicians and fan[s] vent their
frustrations and hatred through music, so they don’t need
to act out in other, more consequential ways.”

Expletives were more prevalent in other posts.

While Balfour and LaFontaine refused to comment, 3rd Ward
Glens Falls City Councilman Bud Taylor, 67, isn’t backing
down. He too believes the concert could have negative ramifications
for the city, especially the youth who attend the show.

“I
don’t know if you’ve seen the bands’ lyrics, but they’re very
suggestive and promote death and violence and suicide and
everything that is bad, OK,” Taylor said. “I’m concerned about
the impact it has on the youth, period. It is not a good message
to send—if you’re unhappy with life it’s OK to go out and
kill cops and kill women.”

Taylor has asked other council members to cancel the show,
but acknowledges that he is alone on the issue.

“No
one else is opposed; I know that it is coming,” Taylor admits.
“I realize that it is a freedom of speech thing, but I just
don’t think that a community should be supporting that kind
of thing.”

The Aggressive Music Festival, which will feature more than
30 bands on two stages over two days, will include such acts
as Soulfly, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Skinless, Shadows
Fall and Sick of It All. (The show is being promoted by Step
Up Presents, which is run by Metroland senior account
executive Ted Etoll.)

And the show will go on, said Suzanna Bernd, the Civic Center’s
executive director.lBernd
said.

David Turner, producing director of the Adirondack Theater
Festival, said the hubbub over the two-day concert reflects
poorly on recent efforts within the city to place Glens Falls
on the map as an arts and cultural destination. Recent renovations
to the Hyde Museum, the upcoming unveiling of the ATF’s completed
Charles Wood Theater and big name acts being booked at the
Civic Center with greater frequency are evidence that the
city has much to offer, Turner said. He worried that the hysteria
could scare off future promoters from booking big shows at
the Civic Center.

“The
city has been trying to dig out from underneath the Civic
Center for years, and you’ve got this opportunity to make
some money from this concert,” Turner said. “I just think,
if you’re in the concert promoting business, you take what
you can get when you’re Glens Falls.”

But the Civic Center’s Bernd said that the hype surrounding
the festival shouldn’t have a chilling effect on promoters’
willingness to book shows at the Civic Center in the future.
And besides, it’s a lot of free publicity, she said.

“I
think what will primarily influence promoters is how the show
itself goes; if it’s successful artistically and financially,”
Bernd said.

Why
is public comment at Albany Common Council meetings not in
the meeting minutes?

The
minutes are not transcriptions of everything that was said
at the meetings, explained Albany’s city clerk, John Marsolais,
but merely records of what transpired at the meeting, such
as the text of legislation passed and how council members
voted. The names and addresses of members of the public who
testify are listed. Committee reports and other comments from
council members are summarized to their bare bones. Though
Marsolais didn’t say it this directly, it does make some sense
that public comment ought not to be paraphrased or summarized
for fear of misinterpretation.

All is not lost, however. Marsolais noted that any written
copies of testimony turned in by those who speak in the comment
period are kept with the files for that meeting. “It’s not
like it would be tossed out,” he said.

On a more comprehensive note, the public comments are recorded,
and Marsolais says he believes those tapes would be available
under the Freedom of Information Law. In fact, while the meetings
are taped in their entirety, only the public and the council
president actually have microphones, so for now the council
members themselves are not recorded verbatim anywhere. A fix
for that is in the works, says Marsolais.

Committee meetings are a little less predictable. Minutes
are more often than not provided by the committee chair to
the full Common Council in writing, but some committee chairs
“will just provide their own verbal record,” said Marsolais.
Still, said Tracy Webster, the council’s legislative aide,
written copies of public comment, at least, will be kept with
the meeting minutes, and can be accessed by request at City
Hall.

Why
are the items on the Common Council’s agenda so vague?

If
you pick up a copy of an agenda for an Albany Common Council
meeting in advance, you may or may not have an idea of what
will be voted on. The summaries of legislation that are listed,
and read in the meetings, are sometimes so vague as to render
the topic unidentifiable. Recent examples include: “An ordinance
authorizing and directing the conveyance of all the right,
title and interest of the city of Albany in and to a certain
parcel of land in the city of Albany, New York, to the people
of the state of New York at private sale.” (Would an address
really be longer than “a certain parcel of land in the city
of Albany, New York”?) Or “An ordinance amending article IX
(building construction and regulation) of Chapter 133 (building
construction) of the code of the city of Albany.” (To do what?)
If there is no discussion in the meeting, these summaries
may be all the public ever hears.

City Clerk John Marsolais said he knows of no particular reason
for the vagueness, though he notes that the full detail of
all the legislation is provided in a more detailed agenda
to the council members for their caucuses, where the real
discussion takes place, and the full text is included in the
minutes. He did, however, acknowledge that if citizens don’t
attend the council’s caucus meetings (usually the Wednesday
before the regular Monday meeting and an additional half-hour
on the day of the meeting, immediately prior), they may not
be able to follow what is being voted upon.

The legislation, and the summaries, are either written by
the corporation counsel’s office, based on memoranda from
council members describing what their goals are for the legislation,
or by council members themselves. Corporation counsel Gary
Stiglmeier said he had not been aware that there was a problem
with the summaries.